A Mummy’s DNA May Help Solve The Mystery Of The Origins Of #Smallpox : Goats and Soda : NPR
▻http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/08/504618235/a-mummys-dna-may-help-solve-the-mystery-of-the-origins-of-smallpox
The child mummy was found in this crypt in a church in Lithuania.
Kiril Cachovski/Lithuanian Mummy Project
The surprise find of smallpox DNA in a child mummy from the 17th century could help scientists start to trace the mysterious history of this notorious virus.
Smallpox currently only exists in secure freezers, after a global vaccination campaign eradicated the virus in the late 1970s. But much about this killer remains unknown, including its origins.
Now scientists have the oldest complete set of smallpox genes, after they went hunting for viral DNA in a sample of skin from a mummified young child, probably a boy, that was found in a crypt underneath a Lithuanian church.